Codecademy Stories

Akira O'Connor

Akira O'Connor

"I believe it would be very useful to teach cognitive neuroscience and psychology students all some coding skills. -Akira"

In two months Akira built a system to make the testing process of the memory patterns more efficient - with no previous JavaScript knowledge.

When I’m interested in how our brains support our memories, I use brainscanners. When I’m interested in how our memory systems behave in and of themselves, I simply sit people in front of a computer and get them to do the memory tests without any other fancy equipment, Akira explains.

The only problem with sitting people in front of computers is that it takes up a lot of time. A 40 minute memory test ends up taking several hours of Akiras work time.

“I have long been interested in learning how to present experiments to people online, because it would allow me to reach a far greater number of people and allow me to use my own time far more efficiently. That’s where Codecademy comes in.”

Akira wrote a small survey program to collect data from test users.

“What I found wonderful was that Javascript allowed me to measure exactly what I needed to measure, button presses and response times, without the need to install any proprietary software. Codecademy got me through the difficult first stages of learning how to use it.”

As an instructor Akira believes in helping his psychology students to learn coding skills.

“Coding is the most versatile of transferable skills to be give to psychology graduates who (rightly) believe they are leaving university with the most versatile of degrees. I believe it would be very useful to teach cognitive neuroscience and psychology students all some coding skills. “